Abu Dhabi: a nation's progress, visible on the horizon

In 60 years, when historians take the measure of the first century of the UAE, there's a good chance they will identify 2010 as a tipping point. This year the capital moved to a whole new level, radically altering the physical skyline but also setting in concrete a new cultural and intellectual landscape.
The best way to see it all in perspective is take a pre-dawn drive out of the city over the Sheikh Khalifa Bridge and Highway - opened in October 2009 and thus, in the fast-moving UAE, already old news. Follow the highway over Saadiyat Island and park up on the slightly elevated ground of Fahid Island. Now scan the horizon, 180 degrees from east to west - starting from where the new highway joins the Sheikh Zayed Road at Shahama - and watch the sun rise over the first hints of the future Abu Dhabi, a city whose horizon will, in the not-so-distant future, describe a continuous crescent more than 30km in length.
The first buildings you see are the grandstands of the Yas Marina Circuit and its attendant hotel. Thanks to two televised Grands Prix, they are already familiar to millions worldwide. This year they were joined by Ferrari World, a precursor of the further development planned for the once barren island.
Next up and, though barely visible from this distance, hugely significant, is the low-rise profile of the campus of Masdar Institute of Science and Technology, designed by Norman Foster to the very latest green standards. In October some 100 students from around the world started classes in the Middle East's first graduate research institution dedicated to alternative energy.
In the same direction, closer to the eye, are the outlines of the first buildings along Al Raha Beach, one of the first major developments off the island of Abu Dhabi. When complete, Al Raha Beach will stretch four kilometres along the coast and will be home to 120,000 people. Such developments are essential for the future. Abu Dhabi is currently a city of some 1.3 million people but by 2030 more than three million are expected to call it home.
At the western end of Al Raha Beach, the eye is drawn to one of Abu Dhabi's most striking new landmarks: the 23-floor disc of Aldar's headquarters, completed this summer. Then almost immediately one encounters not one but two others, both completed this year. The first is the sinuous Sheikh Zayed Bridge, designed by the architect Zaha Hadid and opened to traffic last month. Then there is the unmistakeable Capital Gate, providing offices and a hotel at the Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre. This summer Guinness World Records recognised its daring 18-degree incline as the largest in the world.
Looking further westwards, Reem Island's Sun and Sky Towers dominate the foreground, rising out from among the 15 fledging skyscrapers of Marina Square. Tucked behind is Sowwah Island, where the first towers of the new business district are already reaching skyward. But further back into the city itself are the most distinctive additions to the landscape since the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority building, at 184m, became the city's tallest building in 2006.
Together the Sky Tower, the Cesar Pelli-designed Landmark, rising in the shadow of the Investment Authority building, and the Domain, the residential tower growing up at the heart of the Foster-designed Central Market complex, mean Abu Dhabi will have three buildings over 300 metres tall - still 10 fewer than Dubai but a significant vertical departure for the capital nonetheless.
And it was on Saadiyat Island that the full extent of the future Abu Dhabi was revealed in 2010 - in the shape of Norman Foster's Zayed National Museum, the design for which was unveiled in December.
In company with the Guggenheim and Louvre museums and the campus of New York University, expected to open in 2014 (its inaugural students have begun their studies in temporary accommodation in the city), it makes a clear statement: tomorrow's Abu Dhabi will not only be recognisable around the world for its dramatic skyline, but also for its cultural and intellectual landscape.